The Air Wing conducts more than 1,900 missions annually, including searches, surveillance of large gatherings, and aerial investigations of crime scenes.
By Stan Freeman
Springfield Republican
CHICOPEE, Mass. — Survival in the woods these days is all about high-tech.
If you plan on spending time in wooded areas where you could get lost, a well charged cell phone is a crucial piece of equipment to carry, as is a flashlight.
That’s the message that members of the state police Air Wing delivered yesterday at Westover Metropolitan Airport in Chicopee as they showed one of their search aircraft, a twin-engine helicopter, and some of the tools that help them look for lost or stranded people, something they were called on to do 88 times in the first six months of this year.
Using aircraft as well as night-vision goggles, a global positioning system (GPS) with a coordinated map, a high-intensity spotlight and various pieces of communications equipment, they can often rapidly find someone who is lost or stranded even at night, provided the victims have taken a few precautions.
“The biggest mistake people make is not being prepared,” said Lt. Michael W. Habel of the Air Wing. “Cell phones are becoming critical in the woods. Most cell phones produced in the last couple of years have GPS installed on them. So for us, the advent of cell phones has meant searches are quicker,” he said.
If you become lost or stranded, what should you do? First, try to move to an open area, even a modest clearing among trees, so that you can be seen from the air, then call 911, where police officials will try to determine your location either by GPS or by triangulating your position using the cell phone towers your phone signal reaches. And if the sun has fallen, have that flashlight handy.
Then, “Stay put, because a person who stays in one spot is easier to find,” said Mark S. Spencer, who pilots the Air Wing’s helicopter based at Westover.
From the air between dusk and dawn, he and his crew can use night-vision goggles to detect body heat, or even more effectively, from the light of your flashlight. The goggles can amplify the light from even an inexpensive flashlight by about 10 times, he said.
“We can see them for miles and miles,” Spencer said.
The Air Wing conducts more than 1,900 missions annually, including searches, surveillance of large gatherings, and aerial investigations of crime scenes. The group has a fleet of five helicopters and one fixed-wing aircraft, which are based at three air locations in the state, including at Westover.
Watch Don Treeger’s video of state police demonstraing tools to find lost people at night online at www.MassLive.com.
State police Trooper Michael S. Wong uses night vision goggles to help locate people lost in the outdoors during a mission in a state police helicopter stationed at Westover Metropolitan Airport. State police Tuesday explained the mission of their Air Wing in rescuing people lost in the woods.
Copyright 2008 The Republican